Hunger Games Hate

[okeydokey]

I was just reading online that people are posting nasty messages on Twitter and Facebook about some of the characters being played by black skinned kids. They say it ruins the movie for them that the cool characters turned out to be black.

I believe the book mentioned people of all races in the story. Ican't believe people still would say these things. How awful.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/...-tweets-rue_n_1380377.html?ref=books&ir=Books

http://www.usmagazine.com/entertain...-debate-over-stars-playing-rue-thresh-2012263

 

[MrsPete]

The book clearly describes some of the characters as black. This wasn't something that the film casting group decided to do.

I thought the little girl who played Rue in the movie was outstanding, though I do wonder how she supposedly kept her hair so perfect out in the woods. Initially I didn't like the actor who played Thresh; I pictured him much bigger, more brawny (I thought the same thing about Cato). I imagined him more as a monster-sized linebacker, a real hulk of a man. However, I liked him better as the movie went on, and by that last scene where he spared Katniss' life, I thought he was perfect for the role -- big and strong, but also fast; more of a running back than a linebacker.

 

[dngnb8]

add

Race controversy over ‘The Hunger Games’

By Vera H-C Chan | Movie Talk – 1 hour 10 minutes ago

Any adaptation from book to movie is bound to rile up fans. The casting of black actors in "The Hunger Games" has spurred some negative tweets -- even though at least two are true to Suzanne Collins's 2008 book.

The frenzy has focused on three characters in particular: Rue (Amandla Sternberg) and Thresh (Dayo Okeniyi), the child tributes from District 11, as well as Cinna (Lenny Kravitz), the stylist assigned to Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence), the movie's archer-heroine. In a curious twist of reading comprehension failure and racism, a few tweets have made the public rounds:</snip>

 

[Scurvy]

Every time a book is made into a movie some people are upset because the actors don't look the way they imagined the characters looking. Sometimes they are too tall or short, sometimes too fat or thin, sometimes they have the wrong hair or eye color - I don't think I have ever seen a case where every fan of a book agreed that the movie casting was perfect. Even in this case, lots of people objected quite strongly to the casting of the lead actress because she didn't look like Katness to them. Some of the comments mentioned in the article were clearly offensive and racist, but not all of them. I don't see anything wrong with one that was lumped in with them- one person simply said "I thought she would be white". That isn't racist - the person obviously just pictured the character differently than she looked in the movie. She doesn't say it's a bad thing that the character turned out to be black, she's just surprised the girl doesn't look the way she did in her imagination.

That said, I think two of the characters mentioned in those articles are described as having dark brown skin so it sort of surprises me that anyone would expect them to be portrayed by white actors, though maybe some people just imagined them having dark tans. I was surprised by Cinna. If he was described as black in the books I didn't catch it, and I did picture him as being a fairly tan white person, with brown hair and very dark green eyes. I haven't seen the movie so I don't know how I will feel about Kravitz's performance, but he isn't who I would have chosen to play the part.

 

[Magic Mom]

I was just reading online that people are posting.....

Some people are stupid.

 

[bumbershoot]

Scurvy, some of it is going beyond just being surprised. They are saying that the movie is "ruined" for them b/c of the actors being black.


Although I was surprised by the exact casting of Kravitz, having an old image in my head of him as being a bigger guy than how I pictured the character, once I saw a picture of him in character, he looks almost exactly how I did picture him. Since I'd pictured him being played by my son's gymnastics and ballet teacher, who is black and hispanic and looks quite a bit like Kravitz in character.

 

[Sanchez]

Why are these irrelevant and incendiary stories always published by the Huffington Post?

 

[Scurvy]

Scurvy, some of it is going beyond just being surprised. They are saying that the movie is "ruined" for them b/c of the actors being black.

True. Most of those I was just lumping into the "clearly offensive and racist" comments. I figure most of those are just trolls who are looking for reactions. Hopefully many of the ones who seriously think the movie is ruined for them really just mean they can't bring themselves to watch it when the characters look so different than they expected, and they don't feel that way just because the actors are black. The ones who are upset specifically because they don't like black people - well, they're idiots and hopefully the actors won't hear about it and take it personally. People like that are worthless and shouldn't matter to anyone.

 

[okeydokey]

Why are these irrelevant and incendiary stories always published by the Huffington Post?

It is being reported in many different outlets.

True. Most of those I was just lumping into the "clearly offensive and racist" comments. I figure most of those are just trolls who are looking for reactions. Hopefully many of the ones who seriously think the movie is ruined for them really just mean they can't bring themselves to watch it when the characters look so different than they expected, and they don't feel that way just because the actors are black. The ones who are upset specifically because they don't like black people - well, they're idiots and hopefully the actors won't hear about it and take it personally. People like that are worthless and shouldn't matter to anyone.

It's not that people are surprised because because the characters look different than what they imagined, it is that people are angry that black actors are portraying characters they liked until the movie showed them as black. The movie was ruined for them because black actors played the good characters. Racism is very much alive.

I feel horrible for the young actor who played Rue, having to hear such awfulness.

 

[Buckalew11]

Ha! Well, many people think Jesus was white too!

I just asked DD if she had seen any of this on twitter and she said yes and she also stated that it is clear in the book that the people from that district were black.

What is WRONG with people?

 

[Christine]

Ha! Well, many people think Jesus was white too!

I just asked DD if she had seen any of this on twitter and she said yes and she also stated that it is clear in the book that the people from that district were black.

What is WRONG with people?

They are stupid and ignorant. If you read the books and had any sort of reading comprehension, you would know that Rue and Thresh were dark-skinned. The only questionable casting was Cinna and even having Lenny Kravitz in the role wil fit if you read the description of Cinna in the book.

 

[JenM]

Why are these irrelevant and incendiary stories always published by the Huffington Post?

The story didn't originate from the Huffington Post. They were found on a Tumblr page that was collecting tweets about reactions to the film and it turned out an astonishing number of stupid people made racist remarks about the movie.

It was reported elsewhere before Huffington Post picked up the story.

 

[Eeyore98]

I was just reading online that people are posting nasty messages on Twitter and Facebook about some of the characters being played by black skinned kids. They say it ruins the movie for them that the cool characters turned out to be black.

Even worse than that, I've seen some people say they no longer cared about Rue's death after finding out that she was black.
I just...I can't even respond to such breathtakingly appaling racism.

The only questionable casting was Cinna and even having Lenny Kravitz in the role wil fit if you read the description of Cinna in the book.

Yeah, Cinna's skin is never described, and in my head, he was Latino (and less butch). But Kravitz did a fantastic job!

 

[Robinrs]

Even worse than that, I've seen some people say they no longer cared about Rue's death after finding out that she was black.
I just...I can't even respond to such breathtakingly appaling racism.

I read that last night on Facebook.... I'm simply amazed at what some people find so easy to think and post online.

This week has been unbelievable. I think it's time for me to back away from the computer.

 

[Terry36]

Even worse than that, I've seen some people say they no longer cared about Rue's death after finding out that she was black. I just...I can't even respond to such breathtakingly appaling racism.

Really, this one takes the cake.

I read that last night on Facebook.... I'm simply amazed at what some people find so easy to think and post online.

This week has been unbelievable. I think it's time for me to back away from the computer.

MTE!!!

 

[Sgt Mickey]

Some people are stupid.

I was thinking the same only my first thought was ignorant.:roll eyes:

What century is this again.

 

[Pretty Poly]

This is the excerpt from the book; "And most hauntingly, a twelve-year-old girl from District 11. She has dark brown skin and eyes, but other than that's she's very like Prim in size and demeanor." And it goes onto say that Thresh has the same dark skin color as Rue.

Personally, I pictured her and Thresh as black from this description. Katniss wouldn't have said they were "black," I don't think she had that distinction in her vocabulary since they didn't seem to have people of that skin color in district 12. The page below lists quite a few of the tweets that were posted.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002477275